


Dead flowers on torn pages

by veyl



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Implied Kidnapping, Light Angst, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pre-Relationship, Revelations, artistic hanzo, formerly oblivious mccree, hanzo is MIA, mostly accidental, not in so many words, opportunity makes a thief, though some flowers definitely suffered for it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2018-03-07
Packaged: 2019-03-28 08:48:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13900497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veyl/pseuds/veyl
Summary: He can’t show this to Winston.





	Dead flowers on torn pages

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cibeeeee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cibeeeee/gifts).



> a lil take on [cibeeeeee’s post/hc](http://cibeeeeee.tumblr.com/post/171004318736/during-missions-or-just-simply-when-he-is-abroad) and mccree finding hanzo's notebook
> 
> they also wrote a continuation that can be found [here](http://cibeeeeee.tumblr.com/post/171385060681/cibeeeeee-during-missions-or-just-simply-when-he)!
> 
> check out cibeeeee on tumblr or ao3 for some more quality mchanzo content!

It’s been two weeks and Jesse is restless.

They’re looking for him still, been looking since the moment Hanzo’s comm went dead. Five others that were on that mission came back just fine and Genji can’t quite right look them in the eye.

Can’t bring himself to dig around Hanzo’s room either.

The task falls to Jesse; in addition to their current leads he holds onto the smallest flicker of hope that he might find... something. No one’s voiced it, but it is no secret that some of their senior staff think that rather than being taken, there is a chance Hanzo simply took a turn and left. After all, Hanzo is not new to betrayal and Talon had made offers before. Jesse almost hopes it is that, at least then he doesn’t have to think about what they might be doing to him.

In his heart he knows it is not. If he has learned anything about Hanzo it is that he is loyal to a fault: had been loyal to the wrong people in the past, perhaps, but he also gave every impression that he learned from that mistake. Jesse didn’t think he was taking this chance with Overwatch for granted either, maybe even knew a thing or two about that from personal experience. Even if Hanzo had doubts about joining their cause, he had friends here. And he wouldn’t do that to Genji. Not after the time and effort put into making things right.

The room is dark when Athena grants him access. There is a sharp scent atop the stale air and the dust; Jesse has a wildly unpleasant thought at that, but it doesn’t smell like death. He manoeuvres through the small space to the window, briefly cursing when he bumps into something, lifts the blinds and opens the glass to let the sun and the sea breeze battle the stench. He spends a moment there breathing before turning around to take in the room.

Inspecting the closet he finds that it is serving its purpose holding just clothes. The bed, unmade, with some clothes left out crumpled between the sheets. An open bottle of sake on the floor, must be what he bumped into, spilling its contents happily on the floor; he picks it up half-heartedly, now that the damage has been done. Two cups with half-drunk, muddy looking liquid inside and a plate with leftovers from a dinner two weeks ago on the desk; Jesse makes a face at those, they really should have checked earlier. Nothing to indicate what they don’t already know, and that is that Hanzo had left for the mission in a hurry.

Jesse heaves a sigh and leaves the now-empty bottle on the desk with the other dishes, to dump in the kitchen later. There is nothing else on the desk; some stationery and a tablet and spare arrowheads in the drawers. The tablet is standard-issue, Athena helpfully unlocks it, but there’s nothing on it apart from some books (that don’t look incriminating) and personal messages from the other agents (that he doesn’t read); no unverified contacts, no secret folders. Jesse takes it anyway, if only so Winston can look it over himself. So far the only even remotely unusual thing in the room is a dusty corner, filled up with flowers of all things.

_Dead_ flowers, to be more precise, though if he had to hazard a guess he’d say some of these dried up long before Hanzo had gone missing. Jesse can name but a few and none look like something he would imagine Hanzo might like. Then again, he supposes flowers never really came up in their conversations; there’s not much he knows about Hanzo that the man hasn’t said or shown willingly. Jesse entertains a thought of Talon sending flowers to potential recruits and huffs a laugh to the empty room: it’s about as likely as Hanzo hiding Reaper of Widowmaker in the unmade bed, right here on base.

In any case, the bed _is_ the last place he should check. He approaches it warily, as if beside the ridiculous line of thought his mind still holds some place for doubt. Jesse thinks that even if Reaper does form from the bed and jumps at him he still would have seen stranger things and worries for a moment for his own sanity. He picks up the clothes and folds them over the chair. He checks under the pillow, goes to shake out the sheets

and that’s when the notebook falls out.

Finally something interesting.

It looks old; worn leather covers with some vague design held closed with an elastic band to keep its contents from spilling. It’s thick too, seems to have torn-out sheets stuffed between the yellowed pages. Jesse opens it carefully to a random page

and almost immediately drops it.

It’s a drawing. It’s a _good_ drawing and he stares at it not fully registering what he is seeing now that the initial shock has passed. He thumbs over the well-preserved flower taped next to it, feels the texture to ground himself, convince his mind that it is real. He lifts his eyes to the room, the dead flowers in the corner, looks back to the drawing. Jesse is not a vain man, despite the confidence he upholds as a part of his image, but he’s not stupid either; that there on the page is most definitely his own face and he can’t think of why apart from what the tightness in his chest tells him.

He checks the rest of the notebook, but it is much of the same. He spots a few photographs (an ancient one, of Hanzo and Genji; and some more recent ones, of them both and their fellow agents), pages of just notes (like when something good happened, a task list, a _wish list_ ), but most of it

most of it is the flowers and the drawings.

Their quality seems to improve over time; the first ones are of anything and any one, really, but about halfway they become Jesse and persist until at last all that is left are blank pages. It is an incredible invasion of privacy but Jesse looks over each one, then hides the notebook back under the sheets, sits on the bed and takes off his hat, draws a hand through his hair, pinches the bridge of his nose.

He can’t show this to Winston.

If anything it is evidence in Hanzo’s favour and he’ll pull it out if he has to, but for now simply the tablet and reporting that he found nothing else should suffice. He alerts Athena in favour of going personally, doesn’t feel quite up to the task in his current state. The case remains, finding Hanzo is their top priority; now, perhaps, more urgently than ever.

He rubs his chest to ward off the burn inside and gets up to fetch a mop, there’s still the puddle of sake on the floor and then he should take care of the dishes.

He steals an arrowhead from the desk drawer on his way out.


End file.
